On fingers.

A recent news article which headlines: "Severed fingers won't work on iPhone 5S" which should probably be followed up with " so knock the bastard out and use his finger then disable the security."

Are people really so concerned that criminals would bother to chop a finger or two off to download some porn or T.V. series before hocking your colourful plastic wonder? Really now, the fingerprint works no different to PINs or gestures etc. It's just less likely to hack. But pickpockets & thugs don't bother with that as they'll either just toss a locked phone or factory reset it if they can. If they have access to your fingers they can just threaten you to unlock it, or use your finger while you're unconscious. On that merit the 5S is "easier" to steal for the buggers that ambush people with bricks.

Or on a funnier note, do people really believe Apple actually verified this claim that it wouldn't work with a severed finger? I'd bet money that marketing's claim that the scanner "doesn't" work on severed fingers actually meant the technical people said it "shouldn't" work. It may be fun reading the news when someone de-bunks that puff of smoke.

The real criminal threat with the iPhone 5S is that idiots will actually use the biometric features on the phone and other businesses and institutions start trusting Apple's algorithms. Allowing the scanner, more importantly the phone & technology the scanner is running on, to serve as security for real-world assets makes that phone a single point of failure (or success, depending on what side you're on) for fraud; Especially on a device where people have no real knowledge or control of how "Apps" behave on it. Unlike passwords and such, fingerprint biometric data cannot be changed when you get hacked. Criminals don't need to chop off your finger to drain your bank account or steal your identity, they just need to con you into downloading another "free" app. It's very easy to slip a malicious app through the app store. This has been demonstrated by building self-modifying apps. The initial version is harmless, but as it updates with more seemingly harmless versions, it actually modifies itself into something malicious. Once it fools you into running your finger scanner with an official looking alert, or mines your biometric hash, game over.

Criminals out there are certainly not afraid of consumers adopting the biometric features of the 5S, and they're not about to start lopping off fingers because of it. If anything they welcome the feature and they're just waiting for something worth stealing to become available. Contrary to popular belief, it isn't the colourful, over-hyped piece of plastic & glass in your pocket they're after, so your digits are safe. I can't say the same for your bank account however if you choose to start using that feature.